UltraChenTVStreams First Attack on Mondays (Tips for newly released games and the genre in general)Tuesday Show every Tuesday (Discussion of current events in the fighting game community: tournament results, new game releases, etc.)Level 3 Focus every ??? (Match analysis, discussion of strategy in specific games)Streams archived at http://www.youtube.com/user/UltraChenTV/videos?view=0

I don't play most of games covered on UltraChen's stream, but I watch the videos because they give general tips on how to get better at ANY fighting game. It's an interesting stream.

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown is kinda old at this point (I think it's been around for two years?) but I'm hoping the PSN/XBLA release got some people to check it out. I think it hits that sweet spot of being easy to learn but really difficult to master. Like, there are only three buttons. But every character has approximately three THOUSAND moves and most of them have an alternate stance.

So I wrote a blog about it which is unfortunately devoid of pictures of things I should have had (like the frame data in training mode).

Hopefully the online community is active in a few months because I really want to play it against people.

Oh, and I forgot to mention in the blog that you can download replays which have detailed frame data displays. That's EXTREMELY helpful to getting better at the game.I found this video too but couldn't find anywhere to fit it into the blog. It's quite informative.

I love counters, so why not? It has a button that does nothing BUT counter. The thing is that it seems worthless. Granted, I've only played against the computer because the netcode is terrible and makes playing online a frustrating experience...but here's the thing.

You need to press Hold+ a direction in order to reverse a strike. I think this would be more used against an actual opponent if you're REALLY in their head and can predict that "he's going to do a low strike, I better get ready to Hold+down back to counter this". Against the computer it's pointless because they read your inputs so hard. Also, the advanced holds are impractical because they have awkward commands.

AND here's another thing that makes the Hold button seem out of place. Instead of trying to be psychic and possibly put yourself at risk for taking counter hits by whiffing Holds, you could just...hit your opponent. A lot. It's easy to do that and juggles aren't too tough to pull off.

Some stuff in the game just feels weird to me. There's a comeback move you can use if your health is low, but it takes so long to charge up that it's impractical. There is a dedicated block button but you can also just hold Back to block??? It feels strange in a game where you also have sidestepping and back dashes. I end up blocking instead of back dashing or trying to walk backwards because of that quirk. Why put "hold back to block" and a block button? Doesn't make sense.

There also seems to be characters that are blatantly better than the others. I didn't care for using Ayane because it's too easy. Her moves do a little bit higher damage than anyone, juggles your opponent easily, and she's really fast. Bayman has this thing where like 70% of this moves can induce a crumple state which can just lock you down for the whole match.

There's also little things like the Command Training being designed for controllers. You have to click in the left stick to watch move demonstrations and I found that I really needed move demonstrations to see how I was messing up. Command Training= good. Not considering that people might play with a non-standard controller= bad. Even though arcade sticks aren't really non-standard for fighting games

tl;dr: Hold command is fine in theory, not in practice. Controls feel stiff and awkward. There's some pointless gameplay mechanics. There are VERY clear tiers where some characters in the game are always going to be better than others.

I'll expand on all of this when I can try all the modes and get around to writing a blog, but this game isn't holding my attention. Maybe if they put in more Virtua Fighter characters.

I can't super defend all these points nor do I really want to (don't rally play DoA) BUT I'll help where I can.

I've played a decent amount of Bloody Road 2, a game with multiple ways to block. In that game, one kind of blocking was "light" and could be broken by specific moves, the other kind was "hard" and could block anything like a normal 2D game.

Counters in DoA can be done DURING standing hitstun. Or like... certain hitstun. While you're on the ground. This is pretty key; obvious moves get you blown up but are usually your strongest option. DoA 5 added some kind of move where you can no longer be countered, providing real-life true combos for the first time in the series (aside from the combos I eat while playing Beach Volleyball). You can also launcher people to juggle them so they can no longer counter, but the launcher itself is super risky... IIRC it's wise to do that new move that stops counters then do the launcher for a solid combo string.

Never tell fighting game people that characters are cheap, or OP, or imba, or whatever until you're like, entrenched in the game! Not only will they completely disregard you, but you'll also be wrong! (unless you're talking about 3s chun, that's pretty damn blatant) I know that you probably mean against the COMs or whatever, but "I don't like that character because they're too easy" is something you see ALL the time in reference to Ryu, Wesker, etc. and it just doesn't hold up. I guess you probably don't care about being made fun of on the internet but I'm tellin ya anyway.

So basically wait for the part of the combo you can hold out of and then mash hold all day. #gotem??? or something

I understood the tutorials pretty well for how you use Holds, but it didn't seem to be too useful overall.

I totally understand the timing being really tight; the problem with older DOA games was probably that the timing window for Holds was too large. I also understand the idea of mashing Hold when you're in Critical Stun: you literally cannot do anything else BUT hold in that state. So why not risk it?

The thing is they don't seem useful unless your opponent is incredibly predictable. And if they're even slightly competent, they will make their attack patterns somewhat unpredictable.If you mess up the hold by either timing it too soon or pushing the wrong direction, you're gonna take counterhit damage. So instead of even trying to hold, it just seems more useful for me to block, or hit them before they can hit me. See what I mean?

Unrelated note, but this made me sad.I've played more than a few fighting games this year, and once I can break from my insane quest of playing them all, I'll definitely be going back to it. I'd love to play it against other local players but that's just not possible for me.

The lineup for Evolution 2013 has been announced. That's the biggest fighting game tournament of the year. The Super Bowl of fighting game tournaments. I originally said the "Stanley Cup" or "World Series" but I don't know what those are.

The eighth game is being determined with donations. Each game on this list will have a donation page towards the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and whichever game raises the most money by the end of this month wins. The candidates:

I'm happy with the lineup; honestly, nobody should be unhappy. It's got every relevant game and two that aren't! There's frankly TOO many games for the event to go down smooth, but I firmly believe it will. For the player's choice I'm pulling for Skullgirls but accept that (like DoA5) it has 0 chance of happening. With that in mind I'll hope for Divekick, Melty Blood or.... CvS 2. Honestly I'd rather have my little pony there than the rest. I can't get into GG and all the smash bros. (inc. sony) would take too long and/or be boring. Injustice... ugh.